10: Yellow Alert
Through the qualifiers, Jounouchi shone as bright as the sun and as true as the north star. Kaiba navigated toward him, unaware of the dark clouds starting to gather at the edge of their little world.
-x-x-x-
The competitors drew random weapon lots for the third period. Kaiba drew the number one. His broadsword cleaved his unlucky opponent's railgun and Gunpla in twine.
But the most ridiculous match-up was Iori and Reiji's baseball glove and balls versus Luang Dallara's bat. It seemed that the teens from Tokyo had more tricks yet hidden up their sleeves.
Kaiba pretended not to notice when Jounouchi snuck off to congratulate the team afterwards.
-x-x-x-
Fourth and fifth period were a shooting contest and tamaire respectively. He only needed one shot each to hit the five targets in the bullseye, much to Jounouchi's delight. Playing tamaire with another dozen Gunplas should have been a joke. But as silly as the children's game was, it was still a skillshot contest. Kaiba's team came out on top for the match.
That night, Jounouchi fell asleep in the second bed in Kaiba's room as the day's tournament recap played in the background. He had asked for Kaiba's old GN sword several days ago. With their rooms located next to each other, it was hard to miss Jounouchi tinkering into the late hours of the night. He spent most of the day stifling yawns.
Kaiba didn't have the heart to wake him up and send him back to his own room. He pulled the comforter over him and took a walk to the nearest convenience store. With that bottomless pit of a stomach, Jounouchi was going to be hungry when he finally woke up. Out of his Meijin Kawaguchi costume, no one paid much attention to him. The night breeze rustled through his hair and the quiet calmed his tumultuous thoughts.
Along the way, he spotted Iori chatting excitedly with a man whose back was turned to him. Kaiba could only make out the dark beret pulled tight over wisps of dark brown hair and the scarf wrapped around the man's neck. Wasn't the man hot in those clothes in the middle of summer? He passed them without greeting them.
Further along his route, he ran across Reiji and a silver-haired girl sitting on a park bench. They were both too engrossed in examining Reiji's wrist to notice their surroundings. He doubted Reiji would recognize him at the moment.
At the twenty-four hour convenience store, he picked up several cans of coffee, energy drinks, and two boxed bentos from the refrigerated aisle. But in the end, Jounouchi slumbered through the night, while Kaiba tossed and turned without catching a wink of sleep.
-x-x-x-
"Hello, boys," Kujaku greeted buoyantly with a flirtatious swing of her hips.
Kaiba could have choked her for her sunny disposition alone— well before she even grabbed Jounouchi by the scruff of his neck and planted a wet kiss to his cheek. Her lips left a bright red stain on his skin. It was another item on the growing laundry list of offenses that the day had committed against Kaiba— the day was too bright, the crowd was too loud, and why the fuck was everyone smiling?
The sixth period consisted of 3 vs 3 team battles. It was just his luck, his very rotten luck, that he randomly drew Kujaku and a meek looking teenage boy from France currently ranked at 53rd as teammates. This was the cherry on top of Kaiba's misery sundae.
He glared darkly at Kujaku, who either didn't notice or didn't care. Maybe the sunglasses were dampening the effect. Maybe if he took them off, she'd spontaneously combust. Jounouchi noticed though.
He ribbed Kaiba harshly and scolded, "Be nice to Mai. You're teammates for today."
"I should have smothered you in your sleep," Kaiba growled murderously and flexed his fingers.
The French boy edged away as soon when he heard Kaiba. He started glancing at the other team gathering at the other end of the battle system, probably wondering if he was better off taking his chances with them. Kujaku, on the other hand, watched them with a indecipherable light in her eyes.
"God, you don't have to bite my head off like a little bitch. You know ya could have kicked me out last night. I can't help it if I snore," Jounouchi folded his arms defensively over his chest.
Kaiba's attention tunneled on Jounouchi. It was second-nature after having spent so long fixated on him. He stepped up and jabbed Jounouchi in his crooked tie, then ground his fingertip on the spot like he was twisting a knife. "Human beings do not snore at the decibels of industrial construction equipment. Jounouchi, you are the most uncouth slob—"
The rest of his tirade was cut off by the buzzer announcing the start of the match. With another guttural growl, he tore himself away to approach the machine console. Behind him, he could hear Jounouchi and Kujaku's hushed conversation, which sounded a lot like "so you guys share a room, hmm?" and "goddammit, Mai, not now."
He turned his mounting ire on his last remaining teammate and snarled, "Don't get in my way."
The French boy squeaked and nodded frantically.
Kaiba didn't bother to group up with his teammates, Kujaku's Jagd Doga and the French boy's Gundam Rose, after being launched onto the battlefield. He flew straight for the center of the map. Like a lamb led to the slaughter, his first opponent landed within striking distance. Kaiba drew both beam sabers and charged at the Serpent Custom. Another opponent in a Forbidden Blue leaped to their teammate's defense, blocking with the shield in one hand and swiping with a scythe in the other. Kaiba sidestepped and slashed with his beam saber, leaving a jagged scar across the Forbidden Blue's face.
First blood was his.
"What the hell are you doing? Pull back," Jounouchi screamed over the comms.
Kaiba dismissed the video display with a vicious swipe of his hand. It popped back up almost immediately, followed by one from Kujaku.
"Don't fucking hang up on me!"
He lifted one hand off the control orb long enough to make a rude gesture at Jounouchi.
"Save the domestic for later, boys," Kujaku oozed smug amusement through her own screen. "We have asses to kick and names to take."
Jounouchi, on the other hand, made a keening noise that sounded like a dog needing to be put out of its misery. Kaiba took small comfort knowing he wasn't the only person on the verge of breaking down and committing a few dozen murders. For now, he'd settle for trouncing the opposition. He caught the scythe's next swing across the gap in his shield binder. With a flick of his wrist, he sprayed a stream of beam bits that punched through the scythe blade and then took out the left half of the Forbidden Blue's head. Kaiba grabbed the beam rifle strapped to his side and unloaded five shots into his opponent's center.
With its teammate down, the Serpent he initially targeted started retreating back through the ruined city streets. It shouldered its Gatling gun and fired blindly at Kaiba. Kaiba called up the Legilis' bits again, pooling them together to form an energy shield against the hail of bullets. He aimed his beam rifle and waited for an opening to appear. There— he squeezed the trigger in between heartbeats. The energy attack pierced through his own bits-made shield and straight through the Serpent's shoulder joint, ripping off the arm and the Gatling gun it held. The next shot tore through the chest, triggering an explosion.
And that was two down. He didn't need teammates.
"Kaiba, above you!"
He should have spotted it when he first landed, but fatigue did terrible things to a person's ability to function. A Cherudim Gundam had taken up a sniper position on a nearby roof. The long chrome barrel winked in the simulated sunlight, promising certain doom. Kaiba was wide open standing in the open crossroad of abandoned streets.
But before the Cherudim could fire, a barrage of missiles slammed into the building's crumbling facade. The Cherudim practically face-planted in the asphalt after being thrown from the roof.
"Sorry, Meijin-san, can't let you have all the fun," Mai cackled as her purple Jagd Doga landed in front of him. Her over-sized beam machine gun made short work of the Cherudim, riddling it with more holes than Swiss cheese.
With all three of their opponents down, the buzzer screeched and the computer declared their victory.
Kujaku approached him once the holographic cockpits faded away, moving as svelte as a jungle cat on the hunt. "I had a feeling you were the new Meijin when we first met in the hotel lobby. I hope we get a chance to fight each other in the finals," she purred.
Kaiba left without a word and returned to his room for a much needed nap. He woke up later to a face full of junk food piled next to his pillow— Jounouchi's idea of a peace offering, no doubt. He sighed heavily, before rising from bed and retrieving Jounouchi from next door. Together, they spent the rest of the night stuffing their faces and pouring over data from the day's matches.
-x-x-x-
Something was in the air. He caught himself looking over his shoulders and dodging shadows that weren't there.
It must be the sleep deprivation.
-x-x-x-
Shouting emitted from the open door down the hall. Kaiba rubbed the bridge of his nose and went to investigate. The first thing that drew his attention was the splintered wood around the lock. Someone had kicked in the door. Whatever he expected to find, it wasn't Reiji staring down a heavily sweating Mashita.
"If anyone messes with the people giving it their all in this tournament— no matter who it is— I won't show them any mercy," Reiji thundered. He spoke with the familiarity of someone who was used to being obeyed without question.
Mashita stared in raw, abject horror.
Reiji turned to leave and stopped short when he spotted Kaiba in the hallway. They stared at each other, then Reiji nodded slowly in acknowledgment, stepped out of Mashita's room, and started down the hallway.
"Ah, Kawaguchi-kun, if you see Baker-chan, could you please send her here?" Mashita's smile was jagged, like a puzzle not pieced together correctly.
Kaiba stalked away. He wasn't Mashita's secretary. He caught up with Reiji by the elevator, planted himself between the boy and the door with crossed arms. "Do you want to tell me what that was about? Mashita could have disqualified you from the tournament for what you just did."
He was doomed to be surrounded by idiots that tried to think with their muscles instead of their brains.
"Tch," Reiji huffed and looked away.
"Does it have something to do with what happened in today's race?"
By now, Reiji and his partner should have earned enough points to advance to the finals. Kaiba had expected it. But after today's blunder, the pair had fallen into seventeenth place. Only the sixteen teams with the top scores would advance to the finalists' bracket. If they didn't score the points they needed in the final period, they would be going home in two days.
Reiji tensed and clenched his fist. "Sei and I were attacked by some strange Gunpla inside the lake. It wasn't part of the race. Old man Ral said it was being controlled by a man named 'C' from the Gunpla Mafia."
Before Kaiba could stop himself, a short bark of laughter whooshed past his lips. Sometimes he wondered about the sanity of the world he had embraced.
"Yeah, Sei had the same skeptical look you do now. But the point is someone had hired him to interfere with us."
Kaiba raised both of his eyebrow in question. "And you think that person was the chairman?"
"The mega-sized Zaku specifically targeted Sei and me during the battle royal. That was deliberate. He sent that one in, didn't he?"
"He did."
Both Adams and Jounouchi had said that Mashita personally arranged for the Zaku. But he wondered if Reiji knew how much his accusations sounded like crazy conspiracy theories to an outsider. Except that those weren't the only strange incident to take place in this tournament. Kaiba paid careful attention to all of his competitors. Luang Dallara was a world-class Olympic ball player, so setting a match between him and another fighter in a game of Gunpla baseball was akin to throwing the match in Dallara's favor. Three times did not make for a coincidence, it was a pattern of sabotage.
He should ask Jounouchi to look into the matter. Jounouchi was the one that cared about fairness and even playing fields.
"Ugh," Reiji groaned, scratched his neck irritably, and straightened his posture. "Whatever, Sei and I will get into the finals, no matter he throws at us. You should probably watch out for that boss of yours though, he's not trustworthy."
But Kaiba already knew that— something foul was afoot in this tournament.
-x-x-x-
The final period of the qualifiers consisted of a series of one-on-one battles spread across two days. Jounouchi alerted him to one particular match in the lineup though. Reiji and Iori would fight Fellini on the first day.
"They're all friends. I hope it'll be okay," Jounouchi gnawed on his thumb as he stared at the lineup.
Remembering Reiji's resolve from last night, Kaiba brushed off his concern. The boys had the will to win, and Kaiba had his own opponent to contend with. Though he and nine other fighters were already guaranteed a place in the finals regardless of the outcome of their next battles, Kaiba intended to keep up his perfect win streak.
Which he did.
After destroying Khalifa of Oman's Legend Gundam, Jounouchi pounced him in a bear hug in front of the entire stadium. In that moment, Kaiba never felt more glad to be wearing the Meijin sunglasses that obscured half of his face. In private, he gave Jounouchi a tongue-lashing about respecting personal space.
Nothing dented Jounouchi's good spirit though, and Kaiba's entire body continued to tingle for the rest of the day.
Match 26 ended up as the day's highlight. Jounouchi had dragged him to watch the fight in-person from the fighters' observation room, which directly looked out onto the battle system's platform. The room was unbearably tense, like there wasn't enough oxygen for the handful of other spectators inside. Jounouchi sat on the edge of his seat for the entire time, muttered and cheering to himself like an overactive child.
Reiji and Fellini fought tooth and nail, with every weapon at their disposal. When they had no weapons left in their arsenals, they resorted to their bare fists and threw their Gunplas' whole bodies into the battle.
"Why is he doing all this? Mr. Fellini already has a place in the finals," Nils Nielsen, the American champion, mused out loud.
Kaiba mentally agreed with him. They were wrecking their Gunplas, which would become a dangerous disadvantage to whomever advanced to the finals.
"You don't get it, do you?" Jounouchi turned to Nielsen, whose eyes narrowed with an edge of suspicion. "You don't seem like a big fan of Gunpla, so watch them carefully. This is what fighters are supposed to do. A real battle requires that you throw everything you have at it."
Kaiba and Nielsen made brief eye contact over Jounouchi's shoulders, seemingly reaching the same counter-argument: that passion was not the deciding factor of victory. He kept that to himself though, knowing Jounouchi would not be dissuaded otherwise.
The battle was almost too painful to watch— frames beaten beyond repair and parts flying off in showers of sparks. Conversation had died between the fighters, only their shouts remained as they hurtled toward each other. Yet Kaiba was sure he couldn't tear his eyes away if he tried. The fight ended in a draw, awarding two points to each side. But it was enough to push Reiji and Iori into sixteenth place.
"And that's how you do it!" Jounouchi pumped both fists in the air.
Kaiba's hands shook as he forced himself to sit back and take deep breaths.
-x-x-x-
They had two days before the finals started. It was, as they say, the calm before the storm.